Archives for September 2018

Hey are you a Trump supporter?
Are you a patriot?
Do you believe as the Constitution lays out in the Presidential Oath of Office that it is the President’s job to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”?

Let’s talk nuclear missiles.
Did you know that it would take a missile launched from North Korea 38 minutes to reach Los Angeles?
Do you know we have a system in place in South Korea that let’s us know within 7 seconds when the North Koreans have launched a missile?
Did you know that president Trump wants to move that system to Alaska where we wouldn’t know until 15 minutes after the North Koreans launched a missile that they had done so?
That would mean instead of having 38 minutes to react; we would only have 23.
Tell me how in the F*ck you can support this guy?

978 days to go.

FEAR, Bob Woodward’s about Trump

PS FEAR, Bob Woodward’s new book about Trump details this a Prologue to Chapter One of his book and is the basis for writing the rest of the book.

Wow, tomorrow is September 11th. Do you remember where you were, what you were doing when you got the news?

It was tamped down a bit for me because I was told, “A plane hit the World Trade Center.” I remember reading that a plane had hit the Empire State Building years ago, back in the 1930s. It was a little 2 or 4 seater. That is what I thought of when I heard the word “plane.” My TV had broken and I went out to get a new one. Just as I got back and turned on the set the second plane hit. These were passenger jets loaded with fuel! We weren’t talking some contraption made of canvas and wood!
In every generation there seem to be an event or two that everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing. Maybe they remember the music that was playing.
My parents remembered Victory in Europe Day (VE Day).
The day Kennedy was shot.
The Challenger blowing up.*
9/11.

Yeah. Right.

Those are the times that bind a country together.
The pity of 9/11 was how quickly it was used for personal and/or political gain, when it could have been used to make a real change in our country that could have brought us together and kept us there.

*Although this had a lesser impact. For many I’m sure the shooting of Martin Luther King could be considered another such time.

979 Days to Go
PS More Super Market reading. As to the title (Yeah right)

I’ve been reading “Winners Take All” by Anand Giridharadas, which posits the question, “If neo-liberalism is so good why haven’t conditions improved?” To put that into English – if the idea of the self-made man, individualism etc. are going to improve our lot why haven’t they?
He continues by pointing out that there are a lot of rich people doing good, but the problem is that they perpetuate the system that made them rich and it doesn’t address the underlying conditions, likening it to the idea of the benevolent slave holder.
If things are so great since this all started with Reagan and Thatcher why have conditions for the average person gotten worse, and why are they blamed?
It’s an interesting question.

Difficult People

The idea that things are so bad we need big business to come in and fix the situation rather than having government and therefore democracy fix what is going on is part of the thesis.
There was another book earlier this year called “Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?” by Robert Kuttner. Robert Reich in his flyleaf plug writes, “Democracies govern nations, while global capitalism runs the world.”
Nancy McLean in her book “Democracy in Chains” reveals how people like the Koch brothers are bent on so constricting our government that it will be unable to stop them from doing whatever they want, all under the guise of “freedom” and other high minded words and phrases.

The Panama Papers revealed how the very rich both individuals and corporations work to hide their money and avoid taxes. Some say Trump likes Putin because of his autocratic power and that may be true, but those that have observed them together have also commented that they are both rich and assume they can play by a different set of rules than the average person. Taxes are things that other people pay, not them, and so it has been throughout history. The kings and priests lived lavish lifestyles while the peasants toiled in the fields are were preached to about living a good life so they could go to heaven.

In “Lost to the West,” a book about Constantinople, Lars Brownsworth points out that in the many ups and downs of that city, every time the rich got their hands on the reigns of power, the first thing they did was cut taxes on themselves and put the burden on the poor and middle class. Times have not changed. We have only to look at the Trump tax cut to see that.

MacLean makes the point that the people behind these schemes realize they aren’t popular so they hide what they are really doing. Essentially, their thesis is that taxes are a way to extort money from themselves by the voters for such things as schools, medical care, and the like. This they label as collectivism, and say it is bad. The only thing they want the Federal government to do is provide a military and an internal police force. They like to work at the state government level because a state government is easier to control, and you can use it to suppress local governments if they get out of line. Look what happened to Detroit! Or Flint!
Meanwhile, people who buy into this, the red states for instance, those people live shorter less healthy lives, are less educated, more fearful, and poorer.
I remember reading about one fellow who railed against socialism and loved Nevada for its freedom, but he lived over the line in California for its health care.

All the turmoil we are in now makes me ask myself, “What do I want government to do?” While it might be nice for a Gates, or Clinton, or Zuckerberg, or James to donate to the good, do we want to abdicate our democratic institutions to privatization? Betsy DeVos has been trying to starve our public schools and enrich the private schools. Yet the highest test scores in the world belong to Finland where all the students go to the same school system, teachers are paid well, and tests are kept to a minimum while learning is stressed. Do we want to let our public school system die?

John Dean yesterday pointed out that The Supreme Court has several justices on it that are tainted by some sort of problem before they got on the court. Do we really want another one like that in Brett Kavanaugh? The current court has voted nearly every time in favor of corporations over individuals. The poor and the disadvantaged lose out. Kavanaugh’s record clearly indicates that he will not only vote along these lines, but that he will go even further. Roe v Wade would be gone for sure, but that would just be the beginning.
And then there’s the interesting case of Justice Kennedy. Why did he retire? He had all ready picked out his clerks for the next term when suddenly he retired. Why? Well, his son was the one at Deutsche Bank that approved those loans for Trump. With the Mueller investigation closing in Kennedy must have realized that such a matter might come before the court in the next term and he’d have to recuse himself leaving it a 4-4 tie. If he got off the bench with a promise from Trump to replace himself with his former law clerk Kavanaugh he could be better assured that his son wouldn’t be found guilty.

And Serena! She gets penalized for her coach giving her hand signals, which she didn’t see and it turns out the other coach was doing it too, and it turns out a lot of coaches do it. Then she called the ref a thief and he docks her again, yet there isn’t a man that’s been docked for saying a lot worse. Then they fine her $7000.00. What a class lady, she told her fans not to boo and hugged the girl who won.

President Obama gave his first speech since leaving office yesterday. Boy, have I missed that guy. What a breadth of fresh air. What moral clarity. You can take all the scandals of his eight years in office and they don’t match one day of this administration.
Speaking of which, George Papadopoulos was sentenced to jail yesterday. He got two weeks. The judge would have given him a month but was moved by the fact that he seemed really sorry for what he had done. This should send a clear signal to anyone deciding whether to make a deal with the special consul. ( Man, two weeks or ten years? Hum. Maybe that windbag in the White House will pardon me? )
After sentencing he told a reporter that he didn’t remember saying any of that stuff about dirt on Hillary to the Australian diplomat while in London, and that he had only had one or at most two G&Ts. What? The thing that is claimed to have kicked off this whole investigation may not have happened? Trump said he doesn’t know the guy (Papadopoulos). That he apparently was sitting in on a few meetings but he didn’t know the guy.
It’s been said before and I’ll say it again – Running out of Coffee Boys.

But this is standard Trump talk. Remember when he was asked who his foreign affairs advisors were, way back at the beginning? He had a piece of paper and he read five names? None of which he seemed to have any idea who they were, but he said they were all outstanding? Carter Page was also on the list.

So then we get to the NYT Op-Ed piece. Trump calls it treason and that the Justice Department should investigate for “national security.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, alway a fountain of truth and dependability, (NOT) said the president was just opinioning. Is that a word? Apparently, it is. Or is it opin-ing? I don’t know. Is she part of the internal resistance or is she just trying to come up with something to explain his lack of understanding of how our government functions? Hard to tell.
Was Henry II opinioning when he said he was pissed off at Beckett? Once the knights who went over from France to England and killed Thomas B on the steps in the Cathedral with a mass going on, were they mislead by the King’s opinining? What should Henry II have said on the knights’ return, “Oh, it was just a late night tweet storm?”

So Trump, when questioned about his treason comment and his – Justice should look into this, comment said – and this is formulaic Trump: “We’re looking into it.”, “I’m looking into it right now.”, “We’ll see.”
Didn’t he say the same thing about the people he sent to Hawaii to look for Obama’s birth certificate?
Will we get a “You’ll be amazed at what they are finding” comment next?

Barrack pointed out that what is going on is: not normal, not American, not how our government works, not conservative, and not Republican.
What did Trump say? He fell asleep listening. Yeah right.

Meanwhile we got good job numbers and wages are up too! Well, that’s great … until you factor in inflation and it comes out a wash. Oh so we are back where we started? Not quite. Turns out the cost of health care keeps going up. Something about killing off the Affordable Care Act and the consequences of those actions kinda hurts the overall picture.

The New York Attorney General is investigating The Trump Foundation, Donald, Donnie Jr, Erik, and Ivanka for violating State and Federal charity laws. You mean you can’t use money that was given to you for charity on yourself or your business expenses? Why, who knew? Just ask that couple that ran a GoFundMe for a homeless person. They had to actually give the money to the homeless. Can you imagine?

Then we get to Brett Kavanaugh. People who closely followed the whole proceeding and have followed other proceedings of Supreme Court justices have said that he had the votes going in, but then something happened. He couldn’t seem to answer straight forward questions. He kept slicing and dicing his answers. While not completely false, depending on how you looked at them, or not completely true either, they were just in that strange space of “what isn’t he telling us?” Well, that came out too. The Republicans kept blocking the release of Kavanaugh’s paper trail while in the White House, but enough came out to show that Kavanaugh had not told the truth to the Senators when he was up for his current job, that he hadn’t told the whole truth about his involvement in the torture program, and that he had written that he thought Roe v Wade was not settled law when he was being coy in his testimony about that (and to Susan Collins.) It is clear that he wants to overturn Roe. He has also said that a sitting president can not be arrested until he leaves office. In other words, the president is above the law. Somehow all that doesn’t sit well with some folks.
What this all comes down to is he has been an insider in Washington and done the dirty work to get ahead, and now it’s coming out.
Aside from having views well outside the norms of even most conservative judges is this really the kind of person we want on the bench of the Supreme Court?

Looking at the House and Senate races coming up. It could be a big sweep if Dems get out and vote, which looks likely. The House could be a change of as many as 40 seats, and the Senate looks like it could flip, but the path is narrow. There are seven seats that are within 4 percentage points: four lean Dem, three Rep. Texas may actually be in play because Beto O’Rourke is a nice guy who is saying stuff voters like and Ted Cruz on a good day seems like a smarmy snake oil salesman. If the Dems can hold their four seats and pick up two Republican seats I think they have the majority.
Boy, wouldn’t that be fun?

It doesn’t matter if it’s the Kavanaugh hearing or the leaker in the Trump Admin, the refrain is the same. Or to ask it a different way, “What are they trying to hide?”

In the case of Kavanaugh for some reason they are trying to hide the fact that he was put on a list after the president said he was picking only from that list and he was put on because he has been on record saying that he doesn’t think a sitting president should have to face any kind of legal consequences while in office. Additionally, he is on record – repeatedly – as saying Roe v Wade is not settled law and even if it was the Supreme Court could overturn that. Additionally, he has shown – just this year – that he will go to great lengths to force a woman who has a legal right to an abortion to make it such that she can not get one.
Some people like to call people opposed to abortion and therefore opposed to women having a right to decide what they can do with their own bodies – pro-life, but I prefer the more accurate term of “Women Killers” because that’s what they really are. Besides, it has a more sanitized ring to it, don’t you think? Women Killers. Maybe, Pro-Death? Yeah, Pro-Death.
Why won’t Kavanaugh stand up and at least say he’s pro-life – a woman killer – a man who believes he should tell a woman what she should do with her body? Why not be proud of it? Why hide?
Why is Steve Bannon’s lawyer getting to see all the information and paperwork on Kavanaugh while he was in W’s White House and the Senators who represent us are not? Why can’t we the public see it?
Yesterday, the Republicans on the committee having the hearing on Kavanaugh tried to tell a Democratic Senator that he risked being ejected from the Senate if he released emails that Kavanaugh had been on the email chain. Corey Booker had had enough and he said to the supposed charges, “Bring it.” Then what did the Republicans do? They then said, “Oh well, it wasn’t really ‘committee confidential’ they were all ready free to be shown to the public, and Fox News said Booker was grand standing and making a fool of himself.” Fool on!
Then there’s the question Kamal Harris asked him. Had he been in meetings with people from a law firm that represented Trump about the Mueller probe and Russia? It took him a day to finally answer. Who was Harris specifically asking about? (I mean how could he know who worked at the firm and who didn’t? What? You don’t know that a close friend of yours from your days in W’s White House doesn’t work there? Then I’d say you’re too stupid to be on the Supreme court.)

Pretty in Pink

Meanwhile the hunt for the op-ed author continues. Trump is furious. It’s been suggested that senior admin officials take lie detector tests. Why stop there? Why not enhanced interrogation? It’s not torture. Remember. If it was good enough for some poor schmuck Islamist it’s good enough for a White House aide don’t you think?

Some have been outraged that a person would take something off the President’s desk. Really? Reince Priebus said he did it all the time. If the president said he wanted something utterly stupid done Priebus would say he’d do it next week. the president would forget, end of crisis. I’d wager that ever admin has had people take things off the president’s desk and has at time not done what the president said.

But, as with so many things with this president, this is different. Why? Because this guy is to quote John Kelly – an idiot.

Hey did anything else go on?
Was there an earth quake in Japan. Too bad, so sad. wish we had time to help.
Jim Mattis went to Afghanistan after multiple attacks – really? Hum.
Miss Virginia gave a great answer to NFL players kneeling. Wow. What? Oh, it’s not about kneeling it’s about police brutality. How does a 22 year old beauty queen get that yet a 72 year old president of our country does not?
Snoopes is investigating whether someone burned their feet in protest over the Nike ad. I love it. Who cares whether its true or not? This should usher in a new category of “Feet on Fire.” Where is the shoe bomber? Maybe, he could give some tips.
Serena advances.
The woman who discovered radio pulsars and didn’t win the Nobel Prize got rewarded with the $3M Breakthrough Prize 30 years later. Her boss at the time got the Nobel. Isn’t that fair? A man gets rewarded for the work a woman did?

Susan Collins met with Brett Kavanaugh and she says she’s satisfied that Kavanaugh will adjudicate Roe v Wade questions fairly. I mean yeah, he’s only written papers and given speeches saying the exact opposite. He’s been caught lying to the Senate Committee the last time he was before them. You go Susan. You gotta believe. Susan Collins gets my vote as the dumbest woman Senator. The men? I’m sure there are some much dumber.

Saw my first attack ad against the Democrat running in our district. God. It’s a fill in the blank ad with scary music, a threatening voice, and black and white photos a la Willie Horton type ads, and it ends with “What is … hiding?” What is she hiding? What are you hiding MFer? Oh, did you know that Dave Brat lived in the same state as a terrorist? Did you know that where he lives drug addicts live? Did you know that he has gotten into limousines yet accuses others of being limousine politicians?
These ads remind me of MAD Magazine’s take off on The Daily News, which they called The Daily Dirt. In it there was a picture of a leggy starlet lifting her skirt to show her thigh. According to the article the starlet had received the bruise while the apartment building was being robbed, which was true. She fell in the shower while several floors away an apartment was being robbed.
Spanburger taught in a school on a temporary assignment while waiting for her clearance. That school had two students who later were identified as terrorists. It’s not clear if they were even there at the time she taught for two weeks, yet this is what this ad is about.
God, Dave Brat flew on the same airline that terrorists flew on. Can we trust Dave Brat?